Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies

Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, (born Jan. 25, 1891, London, Eng.—died Jan. 27, 1992, Halstead, Essex), English actress who became a legend on the classical British stage during her 80-year-long acting career.

After she made her debut in a walk-on part in A Midsummer Nights’ Dream (1911), Ffrangcon-Davies played bit parts and sang in the chorus. By 1921 she was taking leading roles with the Birmingham Repertory Company, where she originated the role of Eve in George Bernard Shaw’sBack to Methuselah (1923). Her long association with the heroines of William Shakespeare’s plays began with Cordelia in King Lear (1924) and later included Cleopatra, Portia, Titania, Ophelia, Regan, Beatrice, Queen Katharine, Lady Macbeth, and Juliet, which was her signature role. She displayed equal versatility in her other roles, most notably Elizabeth Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1930, revived in 1935), Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest (1940), Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night (1958), and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie (1965). She last appeared on stage in Anton Chekhov’sUncle Vanya (1970), but she continued to act on television and radio, taping her last television appearance at the age of 100. Ffrangcon-Davies was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1991.